EP 0 270 208 A1 discloses a thermo-forming packaging machine with a sealing station in which an upper film is deformed upwardly and heated in a first part of the tool upper part of the sealing station. The upper film subsequently in part bears closely against the product. In the next process step, the upper film is deformed upwardly and heated in a second part of the tool upper part. A package is subsequently created in which the upper film, being embodied as a skin film or a so-called “Darfresh” film, bears closely against both the product as well as against the inner surfaces of a lower film formed into a tray. This results in a visually appealing product package. However, no packages with a product protruding far beyond a sealing edge of the lower film and having a lid formed into the upper film are producible with this embodiment of the sealing station because the first part of the tool upper part is unsuitable for this.
A thermo-forming packaging machine is known from EP 2 412 632 A1 in which the forming station is not provided in the same plane as the sealing station in order to improve loading products into a tray that is formed into a lower film. Lids formed into the upper film are not provided.
A thermo-forming packaging machine is known from EP 2 412 643 A1, which discloses a forming station for a lower film and a forming station for an upper film, that is able to package products that extend beyond a sealing plane and therefore beyond the tray of the lower film. A chain guide for the lower film is provided having two laterally disposed clamp chains and being oriented in a straight line and horizontally. The upper film forming station is provided above and inclined relative to the chain guide of the lower film. The upper film is with its molded lids shortly upstream of the sealing station deflected from a steeply downwardly oriented direction to a horizontal one and placed on the lower film for sealing. This strong deflection allows for only small forming depths of the lid or only small and thereby easily flexible film thicknesses, for example, up to 300 microns.
One disadvantage with this thermo-forming packaging machine is that it cannot produce rigid packages with a small forming depth of the trays in the lower film and a product protruding far upwardly beyond the tray with a rigid lid that is formed into the upper film.